200+ Best Instagram Captions and Selfie Quotes for Your Photos

While a picture can tell a thousand words, words can enhance a picture by telling a story, providing context, or adding an air of mystery. Instagram captions can help complete your Instagram post. You might add an Instagram caption to direct customers to your bio link, share selfie quotes, or increase social media engagement. In this article, you’ll learn what an Instagram caption is, why you should use one, and tips for writing the best Instagram captions. You’ll even find a list of cool Instagram captions you can use for your photos.

What is an Instagram Caption?

An Instagram caption is a written description or explanation about the Instagram photo to provide more context. Instagram captions can include emojis, hashtags, and tags. Here’s an example of a caption on Instagram:

Anna Kendrick posted a photo of her with a cute animal. Her Instagram caption read “He followed me home ma! Can I keep him?” In this case, her caption helps give context as to why she took a picture with this animal. She told a one sentence story about how he followed her home, but likely took the photo because she thought he was cute (just look at her face!) and wanted to keep him.

How to Write Instagram Captions

1. Ask for Something

Posts with the most engagement tend to have Instagram captions that ask for something. You might ask for friend tags such as “tag a friend who’d love this t-shirt.” You could also use your Instagram caption to ask a question such as “What do you think of this look?” And of course, you can ask for a purchase by asking people to click the link in the bio. By asking for something, you engage your audience and strengthen your relationship to them. All good Instagram captions get people talking, sharing, or buying.

2. What’s the Instagram Caption Character Limit?

The Instagram caption character limit is 2,200 characters. How many words is 2,200 characters? About 330 words, give or take.

Take advantage of this character limit every now and then. Some days you might choose to write an Instagram caption with a string of emojis, but other days you might decide to share a story. With 2,200 characters, you can clearly communicate context to complete your Instagram post.

3. Use Emojis as Easter Eggs

If you’ve got a sizeable and loyal audience, you can use emojis to leave Easter eggs in your Instagram captions. What’s an Easter egg? They’re little hints that send a message across without explicitly saying anything. For example, Britney Spears has been using apple emojis for several weeks. She’s rumored to have an upcoming single called Apple Pie. And while she never confirms anything about the single, she keeps using apple emojis making fans hysterical. If you have an upcoming launch or an announcement you want to hint at, you can use emojis in your Instagram captions to create hype.

4. Brainstorm Several Good Instagram Captions First

Have you ever thought of something really witty to say after posting on Instagram? Bleh, sucks. The secret to coming up with the best Instagram captions the first time around is to write a bunch of captions first before choosing one. You can create a short list of ideas, browse hashtags for inspo, or look up puns for your keyword.

Ultimately, you need to pre-decide what tone you want for your caption first. Do you want to share a heartfelt story or make someone laugh? Once you know the tone you want, you can come up with caption ideas to see what works best for your photo.

Want to learn a few more amazing Instagram tips? Learn from Gretta Van Riel in our free Instagram course.

Conclusion

You may have noticed that the recurring theme with these Instagram captions is confidence, self-love, and attitude. Whether you use one of the Instagram captions in this article or create your own, the best captions on Instagram come from an appreciation of your self worth. If you’re creating funny captions, feel free to use puns to add a sense of playfulness to your post. Make your caption tell the untold story behind the photo and it’s sure to be a success.

Nicole Martins Ferreira

Nicole Martins Ferreira

Nicole Martins Ferreira is a content marketer at Oberlo and experienced ecommerce entrepreneur. She’s been building online stores since 2013 and sharing her secrets with Oberlo users since 2016. Follow Nicole on Twitter at @NicoleMarFer.

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